Echoing statements by other Armenian officials, Pashinian said that Azerbaijani troops have been massing along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the Nagorno-Karabakh “line of contact.” He said Baku is thus “demonstrating its intention to launch a new military provocation.”
“I think the situation is such that the international community, UN Security Council member states should take very serious measures to prevent a new explosion in our region,” he added during a cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, made the same appeal when he met with the Yerevan-based ambassadors of foreign countries on Wednesday.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry was quick to deny Pashinian’s claims and blame Armenia for rising tensions in the conflict zone. It said that Yerevan should end its “military-political provocations,” drop “territorial claims” to Azerbaijan and stop hampering the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani treaty.
Pashinian insisted that Armenia stands ready to sign such a treaty. He also reaffirmed his commitment to Armenian-Azerbaijani understandings brokered by Russia and the European Union.
Pashinian pledged in May to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh, drawing condemnation from Karabakh’s leadership and the Armenian opposition. He complained afterwards that Baku is seeking the kind of peace deal that would not prevent it from laying claim to Armenian territory.
Pashinian on Thursday did not specifically request military assistance from Russia, Armenia’s increasingly estranged ally. The Armenian government has repeatedly accused Moscow and the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) of ignoring such requests made during the September 2022 large-scale fighting on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Tensions between Yerevan and Moscow have deepened since then. They escalated further last week after Pashinian said that his administration is trying to “diversify our security policy” because the Russians are “unwilling or unable” to defend Armenia.